Raikkonen in rude health

For all his impressive performance, Raikkonen owed his win to Lewis Hamilton's wretched fortune at McLaren.
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Wretched fortune or bungling incompetence????

@straight talker

Give him a break man, this article isn't about Hamilton, it's about Raikkonen. As you are knowledgable F! fan (I need to stress that I say this sincerely, i don't wish to come across as a snobby git), I'd really like to read what you thought of his performance, and indeed his season. I think despite everything, he has been the most fascinating driver to watch this season, for mixing it up with the front runners and stealing points consistently. I think he is what Lotus missed last year in Kubica; and if Kubica was still there, how far up do you think he would be?

Great to see Kimi win.

BBC, I think Ben Edwards is by far the best F1 commentator since Murray Walker so don't want to say anything bad but really wish he would be quiet so we can hear what the drivers are saying in the room just before the podium.

Also please never cut away from the live race feed to show an interview(Hulkenberg) as Rosberg's crash was missed live when that was happening.

Vettel didnt particularly race an impressive one tonight, but he surely is the luckiest F1 driver at the moment. I would have loved Alonso to win this one, at least keeps it more interesting. The way its going, Vettel is going home with it this year - thanks to the racing gods.

Unlucky for LH - 11 races this year hes had either a DNF, mechanical failure or a pit stop error. And still above the supposedly better driver, his team mate, JB in the championship. What a joke!

Interesting to see how all these hypocritical reporters are dacing around putting the questions directly at the folks at Mclaren; why in 4 out of the last 5 races, LH's car has had "reliability issues"? If LH has eff'd up 4 out of 5 races, god knows where that one would have ended.

Double standards when it comes down to LH's case, as usual.

All three podium finishers gave an object lesson in racing to the many drivers who crash-banged into each other behind them
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Pity SV and KR did not give an object lesson in how to behave on the podium with their foul language.

Benson seems happy to gloss over that and prefers to try and stoke up anti-hamilton sentiment with articles like this https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20199430

Raikkonen is just a classic example of a driver who will get into a car and drive the wheels off it. He is certainly a world class driver and we should be talking about there being a "top four" in F1 with Raikkonen, Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso. On merit this season, Alonso has indeed been the best driver but it is a combination of man and machine and despite no reliability problems, Ferrari have not stepped up enough on the performance side. While Vettel is still the favourite to win the title, it isn't over yet and Red Bull could easily suffer a reliability problem on Vettel's car. It would be fitting for the championship to go to the last race as this has truly been a remarkable season. It has certainly been a long time since we've had eight winners in one year.

McLaren as a team have been below par again and they have cost Lewis a shot at the WDC. Someone should pay the price for that. They started with the quickest car and Lewis has consistently qualified well but lost it in the race due to many problems out of his control. The advantage that he should have had didn't materialise and the faults that have cost him at least the chance of three wins, today, Spain & Singapore have cost him the chance at the title. I'm sure he will struggle in the Merc next season but it seems that his time at McLaren had reached the end. Jenson cannot qualify high enough for a chance at the WDC and that is a shame.

Well done to Kimi, Fernando & Seb.

@ Comment 1. Wretched fortune for Lewis in that his engineering team has failed to deliver reliable tools. This of course leads on to the point of bungling incompetence from McLaren's engineers this season. Time must surely be running out for Whitmarsh after a season where they had a very quick car but a series of pit lane and engineering blunders have cost them.

It looks like the two people who deserve this championship the most ( Alonso and Hamilton) aren't going to win it

@8 I have to say I haven't seen any mistakes from Lewis in terms of his driving all year and McLaren have had arguably the fastest car so there is only one reason why McLaren will not win the WDC & WCC and thats team errors and the person ultimately responsible for not getting on top of them after 2 years of trying is Whitmarsh.

So I have to ask...

1. Why has he not come out and put his hands up and taken responsibility for this?

2. Why are the media content to gloss over this and instead try to bash Hamilton at every opportunity?

3. Why has he not been given the boot for ultimately driving arguably the fastest driver in F1 to a lesser team?

Why would you say Vettel doesn't deserve the championship - he has shown all season that he is the best driver. He may not have had the typical Red Bull dominance that he is accustomed to, but he was consistent - had it not been for two alternator failures he would probably have wrapped up the championship today.

Now I know people will point to Hamilton and his problems and say 'he could have won the championship' but the fact of the matter is yes, he has had those problems but just hasn't been consistent enough. The EPL is won over 38 games, the F1 WDC over 20 races... Think it through...

Today was one of the best races of the season because Vettel started at the back. Vettel made the race - no-one else did anything, that's why it became a 'classic'.

Imagine for a second if Hamilton or Jenson, or even Alonso (Bandwagon) had done what Sebastian did today. There would be not a word about 'the best car', or 'luck', or 'safety car came at the right time'. No, it would all be about what a 'great driver he is' or 'look at his determination'.
-----------------------------------------------------

It looks like the two people who deserve this championship the most ( Alonso and Hamilton) aren't going to win it

#9 - errr how exactly does Hamilton deserve it more than anyone else? he's 5th.....
Raikkonen has driven better than him this year and in a worse car.

@10 Straight Talker

Completely agree! Interesting that in the Italian press they called for Domenicalli's sacking after pre season testing and a race or two (albeit short sighted given the turn around this year). But after an entire season of blunders the British press focus on single inflammatory words from Hamilton's interviews, rather than Whitmarsh's performance as team principal for 2 seasons.

Hamilton's misfortune aside, Kimi drove a fantastic race and finally took a well deserved win. I was torn at the end in deciding who deserved it more between him and Alonso.

Vettel was undeniably fortuitous today, but luck favours everyone at some point at today was Vettel's day. An excellent battle between himself and Button was the only true display of racing pedigree from him in the whole race, but you can only play the cards your dealt and it looked like Vettel had a deck full of Aces while everyone else was playing Uno.

A mixed bag down then field, a silly move from Perez and a lack of respect from Webber to other racers was a bit disappointing.

We're set up for a great couple of races to close the season. I hate to wish bad luck on anyone but a DNF from Vettel would really take it to the wire!

I feel sorry for Benson. He must have had at least 3 or 4 glorifying articles about a dominant hamilton win just itching to be published in the ready, when all hope went up i smoke. Many bitter tears have flowed in the Benson residence, where Andrew has built a shrine dedicated to Lewis /hamilton the second coming.

@11 - Incredible that in two paragraphs you play the bad luck card for one driver and then slate people for playing it for another. Truly outstanding.

I hope your trying to wind people up, if so bravo, if not...oh dear.

Benson goes on about the poor luck of Hamilton.

Why doesnt he also mention the races Lewis dropped the ball/points, like Melbourne? He had pole there. How come Button trashed him in that race?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This is not a new problem for McLaren, remember the Raikkonen/Montoya era and the shambles of a car that turned out to be. I'd like to see the official stats from 2000 until now with the reliability of the McLaren, Ferrari and every incarnation of the current Lotus team. McLaren won't even be close.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

"Fuel Pump failure on a Mercedes engine"

Sack Hamilton and Whitmarsh! The comments given to this website get more and more absurd by the day.

Funny how the word rude is used for the title yet no mention of the swearing...

Seb is a lucky boy indeed he drove ok but luck seems to be drawn to him Lewis how sad is that two races leading and two failures

@ 19 lol

Guys just Ignore him

Raikkonen is an incredible race driver with an interesting personality, but he certainly made the race more amusing today and deserved his win. I hope the Lotus is more competitive next season so we can see the three best drivers (Vettel, Alonso and Raikkonen) battle it out.

I would consider Hamilton in that group of best drivers if he hadnt decided to move to Mercedes to ruin his career. I did actually feel sorry for him today for the first time ever though

BBC why did you take of comment 19.
Please restore it, that way People know what Boristhegreek truly is

I have been saying this for a while now but if anyone who saw that comment can be in any mind as to what he is then you need HELP

@23 spot on!!!

Definition of a Troll is a person who posts outrageous messages to bait people to answer. The troll delights in sowing discord on the forums. A troll is someone who inspires flaming rhetoric, someone who is purposely provoking and pulling people into flaming discussion.

You cannot negotiate with them; you cannot cause them to feel shame or compassion; you cannot reason with them.

The only way to deal with trolls is to limit your reaction and not to respond to trolling messages.




@24 I would consider Hamilton in that group of best drivers if he hadnt decided to move to Mercedes to ruin his career.
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I agreed with what you were saying when I first heard the news but now looking at all the messups that have happend for 2 years seemingly with no effort to stop it I now understand Hamiltons thinking.

Much better to try his luck with Merc and imo he's negotiated performance clauses in his contract to allow him to leave and go to another top team if Merc don't perform.

Much better that than sign another 3 year deal with McLaren and go through the same shambles again.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Raikkonen has been incredibly consistent this year so a win is well deserved.

Alonso was excellent once again and before the race would have thought that finishing second would have significantly reduced the points gap to Vettel and maybe even give him a lead.

However, Vettel was superb and managed to work his was through the field very efficiently. He undoubtedly benefited from the two safety cars but that should take nothing away from his performance.

It means that Vettel goes into the last two races with a big advantage but as we have seen this weekend anything can happen.

@26 I suppose you are right, it does seem the time for Lewis to move on. Mercedes are an exciting team, lets hope that the reason they have been so bad in the second half of the season is because they are focusing all there attention on next years car

As for Hamilton well it must be incredibly frustrating to be the class of the field for the entire weekend only to suffer another reliability issue.

It was almost a carbon copy of Singapore where he looked at ease in the lead only for the car to let him down.

I've lost count of the number of times this has happened to McLaren this season but it is something they will need to sort out quickly if they are to be competitive next season.

It was also nice to hear Hamilton's concern for Rosberg and Karthikeyan after their huge crash.

Kimi's bad tempered radio messages had me in stitches.

I like the way that he is not false and just says what he thinks but the guy is rude beyond belief.

The double standards from the BBC in the coverage of his behavior is breath taking. I can only imagine the firestorm that would be caused by Hamilton speaking in the same manner on the team radio then swearing on the podium.

Total double standards and totally indefensible.

Hamilton signing for merc removed any doubt whether he was not right in the head, and lacked that certain something extra you need to become a true F1 great. We now know that for certain. Jacques Villeneuve, as alex wurz tweeted.

I love how, when it was time for champagne/rose water, Kimi didn't waste any and went straight for the drink :)

Yesterday after Vettel was demoted I said on these very forums:

"Raikkonen to win, Alonso 2nd or 3rd to keep the championship alive"
- and guess what, the Racing Gods delivered...for a while. Shame about Vettel.

But what a race this was. Overtaking, crashes, sparks, spins, sign breaking, drama, even trading fastest laps at the end between Alonso and Raikkonen, two of the best drivers on the grid. Even the safety car periods were fun to watch. Now compare this to a week ago in India. Amazing how quickly F1 changes.

This race says nothing about Vettel's ability though. On paper he went from last to 3rd, in reality he was gifted 2 pit stops (safety car periods) whilst almost crashing in one of those periods. His car was geared from the start for the race, whilst everyone else had Parc Ferme conditions. He also couldn't overtake without breaking his wing, and when he was behind Button on fresher options compared to Button's older primes for several laps. In such scenarios - by that I mean any time he's not near the front end with the fastest car on the grid - he acts like an amateur. You put Alonso in that position and he acts like a world champion. That is why people say he is not in the same league as Alonso, Hamilton and even Raikkonen (who was in a much more inferior car but like Alonso, can push for far more than the car is capable of).

@13 JoeAvis

I'm not sure what has happened to Perez since he was confirmed at McLaren but he seems to be trying too hard. He was definitely at fault for the incident which took out Grosjean and Webber - you can't just rejoin the track and hope the other car moves out of the way.

Webber pulled some strange moves today. I think he should have had a penalty for the Massa "overtake" as he clearly impeded him. Not that it mattered in the end because Webber was taken out later.

I love how, when it was time for champagne/rose water, Kimi didn't waste any and went straight for the drink :)

Yesterday after Vettel was demoted I said on these very forums:

"Raikkonen to win, Alonso 2nd or 3rd to keep the championship alive"
- and guess what, the Racing Gods delivered...for a while. Shame about Vettel.

But what a race this was. Overtaking, crashes, sparks, spins, sign breaking, drama, even trading fastest laps at the end between Alonso and Raikkonen, two of the best drivers on the grid. Even the safety car periods were fun to watch. Now compare this to a week ago in India. Amazing how quickly F1 changes.

This race says nothing about Vettel's ability though. On paper he went from last to 3rd, in reality he was gifted 2 pit stops (safety car periods) whilst almost crashing in one of those periods. His car was geared from the start for the race, whilst everyone else had Parc Ferme conditions. He also couldn't overtake without breaking his wing, and when he was behind Button on fresher options compared to Button's older primes for several laps. In such scenarios - by that I mean any time he's not near the front end with the fastest car on the grid - he acts like an amateur. You put Alonso in that position and he acts like a world champion. That is why people say he is not in the same league as Alonso, Hamilton and even Raikkonen (who was in a much more inferior car but like Alonso, can push for far more than the car is capable of).

Just how much money is Kartikayan paying into HRT though... seriously, it's one thing being slow, another being a threat to other driver's lives.

Boristhegeek

Take your racist trolling elsewhere. All you want is to cause sn argument. If you follow F1 just to attack Hamilton then you definately are a pathetic man. You are anyway!

I don't like Hamilton but I never attack him like you do. If you want to continue I suggest you join the BNP or EDL with the other bigotted racists!

31.
At 22:58 4th Nov 2012, straight talker wrote:

Kimi's bad tempered radio messages had me in stitches.
___________________________

Me too! I like the fact he does things his way and doesn't give a damn what people think. Some people may consider that it's rude but at the end of the day F1 is not a ladies tea party it's a competitive sport so pleasantries can go out of the window.

Did you guys watch the friday Practice when Vettell had a go at Rocky?
today i hear him screaming on the radio about other drivers, this ain't the 1st time either.
And now he is swearing live on the podium

Can you imagine if that was LH?

I mean LH gets his own "Abu Dhabi GP: Sebastian Vettel podium was lucky - Lewis Hamilton" post
Every driver said the same thing, Button, whithmarsh, Alonso etc.. but to Lewis gets his own post about the comment???

@ 37 VettelDRFC90

Just ignore him mate.
That goes for everyone else just ignore him, he will tire and leave

Whitmarsh will get the sack at the end of the year, but I'm not sure how fair it will be. It's fair in that, as the boss, you take the credit when it goes right even if it's not down to you, so vice-versa. But a lot of the problems seem to be down to the Mercedes engine, and what is Whitmarsh supposed to do about that? Come to that, Force India and Mercedes own team haven't looked too clever either.

@39 Oddz

Vettel certainly likes a whinge but hey so do most of the drivers.

I don't think DC was too impressed when Vettel started swearing. He muttered something about it not being his first language but I don't buy that. Generally the first words you learn in a new language are swear words - certainly for me anyway!

Vettel superb!! Are you kidding!! ;)

Seb hits the wall hard in Q1.

Seb's car is light on fuel and breaks the rules so gets sent to the back of the grid.

Sebs car luckily is allowed to be improved, tweaked and starts out of trouble in the pits.

Seb had a great chance to prove he can cut through the pack and race wheel to wheel cleanly and decisively!

Seb lucks in as the foolish Hulkenberg decides to ram the back of a trio of cars taking turn 1 side by side, taking out himself and his teammate etc.

Seb messes up and loses part of his front wing by hitting Bruno Senna, not driving like a true great whatsoever.

Seb can only pass Romain with his car fully off the track, again, so has to be directed to give it back.

Seb lucks in when Rosberg crashes causing safety car closing his gap to the front runners.

Seb can't drive behind the safety car and nearly hits Ric who was warming his tyres and brakes like everyone else so then Seb takes off his front wing by smashing into the DRS polystyrene sign.

Seb loses it, whinging like a baby over the radio, which could get Helmut Marko to get rid of Ric for Seb's own mistake.

Seb is forced to pit under safety car for a new wing and rejoins without losing time, then doesn't have to pass most rivals on track as they pit when racing so he continues in the best car on track.

Seb's teammate shockingly takes out or delays others by bungling overtakes round the outside then ramming them as he goes for the apex or rejoins the track.

Sebs Torro Rosso's junior team positively jump off the track to let him past.

Sebs rivals self destruct like the fool Perez who messes up, rejoins and takes out a load of cars, or they have mechanical issues like Lewis.

Seb, running a lucky 2nd, pits again to fresh rubber and the other safety car then closes all gaps again for him.

Seb, on brand new rubber in the best car lucks in right behind Button who defends and then gifts him his indecidsive pass instead of running him over the kerb.

Seb (or rather Adrian Newey) sets the fastest lap in the best car on track.

Seb is thoroughly unimpressive and by far the luckiest guy today.


Very entertaining though.

Great race by Kimi, Fernando and Lewis.

Right, now the GP2 'cowboys' race is over, when does the Formula 1 race start?

How is pointing to the fact Lewis Hamilton wants to be a rapper + lifestyle next to his driving, racist? Jenson Button owned him at Melbourne, yet Andrew Benson doesnt mention that, like it never happened and wasnt a factor in 2012 not being his year. Why not? Why depicting him as a victim of the rim shop, err, mclarens reliability?

@39 You are sooooo right!!!

Its total double standards and I'd go further and say its deliberate targeting of Hamilton.

This isn't just a one off, it's a consistent pattern we have seen all season....

If a driver complains on the team radio, insults another driver, swears or says anything that can be twisted into a negative it gets no focus from the BBC unless it's Hamilton in which case we get an article with comments enabled on it.

Benson has the ability comment and I challenge him to post a comment explaining this double standard and anti-Hamilton bias.

He has absolutely no defense and I am 100% convinced that Benson will not man up and post an explanation.

I'll even wager closing my account on that!!!

@Boris

You keep referring to Melbourne. Look at the points table. Now consider the extra number of mechanical failures and pit stop errors Lewis has had compared to Jenson. Now shut up.

Sebs drive from P24 to P3 was as good as Jim Clarks Monza 1967 drive. Vettel is a great ambassador for the sport. Lots of kids look up to him. We are watching a legend.

@piggyback: im only asking: Where Was Lewis Hamilton at the 2012 Australian GP? How come he got so beaten by Button? And why is this fact not in the consideration of Lewis Hamilton fan club chairman Andrew Benson, assesing his poor season of bad luck?

@31, 38, Kimi was class over the radio, but not as funny as here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3JWFEK5q88

@46. Piggyback

Don't fall for it mate, as I said in an earlier post:

The definition of a Troll is a person who posts outrageous messages to bait people to answer. The troll delights in sowing discord on the forums. A troll is someone who inspires flaming rhetoric, someone who is purposely provoking and pulling people into flaming discussion.

You cannot negotiate with them; you cannot cause them to feel shame or compassion; you cannot reason with them.

The only way to deal with trolls is to limit your reaction and not to respond to trolling messages.

@Piggyback

Dont respond to him. Just ignore him
Dont feed the troll

You know to whom i am referring

(if he doesnt understand what happened in melbourne at the start of the race or didnt see ted kravits note explaining LH start issues then....)

Again, ignore the troll

When Alonso, Hamilton and the current crop of F1 drivers retire and we're talking about the 2025 F1 season, I wonder if boristhegreek would still be going on about how Hamilton was "trashed" in the 2012 Melbourne GP.

"His poor race engineer was only doing his job when he informed him of the gap to Fernando Alonso's Ferrari behind him, and some may find it rude that Raikkonen would respond by asking him to "leave me alone, I know what I'm doing".


It wasn't his race engineer, so much for the chief writer tag.

50. At 23:46 4th Nov 2012, straight talker wrote:
=======

I just don't understand why he is trolling though. He's not going to change anything, win anything. It's an internet forum. Is his life so worthless that he actually gets satisfaction "winning" an argument to say that Hamilton was "nowhere" in the 2012 Australia GP?

@49. janner_ LOL absolute class!!!

Superb drive from Vettel today, I can't understand how he still receives criticism for his drive today!

Post 43 made me laugh, some of the criticisms are ridiculous!

Yes he may have been lucky with safety car timings, but so what, he put himself in a position to benefit from them, so credit to him. I would rate Alonso as better than Vettel (for now) but people judge them by different standards. Alonso inherits a win and he is "opportunistic" or a "wily fox", but Vettel is "lucky".

Hamilton beats Button and it is all down to his superb driving. Vettel beats Webber comfortably and it barely gets a mention!

Similarly with Vettel its all the car. He is racing alongside Webber a very good (definitely not great) driver and beating him comfortably. If the Red Bull was as dominant as people imply Webber would be finishing 2nd in every race too.

It is getting a little silly now.

@47 Sebs drive from P24 to P3 was as good as Jim Clarks Monza 1967 drive.

That's a good one that is, ha ha ha ha:

In the 1967 Italian Grand Prix at Monza after starting from pole, Clark was leading in his Lotus 49 when a tyre punctured. He lost an entire lap while having the wheel changed in the pits. Rejoining sixteenth, Clark ripped back through the field, progressively lowering the lap record and eventually equalling his pole time, to regain the lost lap and the lead. He was narrowly ahead of Brabham and Surtees starting the last lap, but his car faltered and finally coasted across the finish line in third place.

is not the same as

In the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Vettel hit walls, other drivers and road signs, lucked in with the safety car, twice, and took the best car on the grid to 3rd while most others were taken out by rookies or had car failures.

@ 54. Piggyback

Who knows what goes on in the mind of a troll?!!

Oddz, but for the great overtaker rapper/driver Lewis Hamilton passing Jenson Button in any of the following 58 laps AFTER the start should not be a problem? As it was, Button pulled away from Hamilton at half a second a lap.

Our rapper/driver driving the mclaren rocketship couldnt even overtake Vettel, driving a car much slower than the mclaren.

Why is that race ommited from Andrew Bensons obituary on Hamiltons 2012 wdc campaign?

@54 You have to understand that trolls like Boristhegreek don't think like normal people. He has no interest in winning or losing the argument or changing anything.

His sole interest is to sucker you into an argument to wind you up, nothing else. He will dredge up whatever he can knowing full well he is talking rubbish but the point is to try and bait you into a response.

The one thing a troll loves is an angry response and the angrier the better.
The one thing a troll hates is no response.

@janner, Clarks car was not a little bit quicker than the others, the diffeence was monstrous. Massa couldv unlapped himself in that Lotus. Well, ok, now im exxagerating.

Vettel gave a masterclass in racing today, and anyone not convinced he is a great like clark or stewart, will never be convinced.

Post 60
straight talker is spot on

@Straighttalker, sir you are a mind reader. Totally agree with everything you have said. @boristhegreek, you haven't got a clue have you? And wheres the rapper rubbish coming from?
Anyway, some of my thoughts...... Whitmarsh always comes across as a nice guy but I've been saying a long time now he's failed miserably and continues to do so. Mclaren must make that change. I was disappointed Hamilton decided to go but now so glad for him.
Always love to watch Kimi and his weird personality, we all swear from time to time but to do so in front of millions was unacceptable likewise Vettel.
Beginning to like Coulthard these days he is very informative and professional compared to a couple years ago.
Bar any major problems, Vettel will win the WDC although Alonso deserves it.
I do hope Brawn makes this 'great team' he has put together work next year. I would love to see the brilliant Newey challenged.
Love to all, and hugs xxx

@63, oh yeah withmarsh is such a failure! His car only outqualified and comfortably led the race ahead of the magic red bulls!!!

Well, i guess Mclaren shouldnt try to get Newey, hmm?? His cars get constantly troubled by kers problems, alternators, etc. Nah, if he was at mclaren youd find reasons to criticise him too.

Is there nobody who can say why Hamilton got thouroughly beaten at the australian gp by vettel and button? Was it withmarsh fault, too?

Great to see all the positive comments about Kimi, a great driver and a completely down-to-earth character as evidenced by the beer in hand at the team photo. His radio comments were priceless and I am sure the team understand Kimi's character enough by now not to be offended. I am also sure he will be buying them all many drinks tonight! Even Benson sounds full of warm and unmitigated praise for Kimi and that is a first! Was also really nice to hear DC's insight into Kimi's real personality away from the media circus.

Have been waiting for this ever since Spa 2009 and I just picked up 2 resale tickets for Austin based on this result and there are no flights left so it's a 13 hour drive for me. Go Kimi!

"@63, oh yeah withmarsh is such a failure! His car only outqualified and comfortably led the race ahead of the magic red bulls!!!

Well, i guess Mclaren shouldnt try to get Newey, hmm?? His cars get constantly troubled by kers problems, alternators, etc. Nah, if he was at mclaren youd find reasons to criticise him too.

Is there nobody who can say why Hamilton got thouroughly beaten at the australian gp by vettel and button? Was it withmarsh fault, too?"

This post is hilarious. That car that out-qualified the Red Bulls was Lewis Hamilton's car. Jenson was miles behind, slower than Maldonado, Kimi and Alonso. But then again, that can't be true because Jenson trounced Lewis at Australia! Why don't they just award the championship in Australia cause that's obviously the greatest test of drivers?

Also, anyone else getting tired of having these backmarkers race every week? Vettel basically accidentally overtook Pic because he was so slow into the corner today. I feel for the drivers, especially Glock who looked promising, and to some extent Petrov,(not as much Kovaleinen because he had his chance in a championship winning car) but they rarely even provide exciting racing between themselves.

This latest car failure for Hamilton now brings Button to within 12 points of Hamilton in the WDC.

Since Singapore Hamilton has had 100% of the car failures and Jenson has had none yes 0%. It would now seem on the current trend that Jenson is on course to beat Lewis again in the WDC as McLaren only seem able to build a reliable car on Buttons side of the garage (this is not a conspiracy theory, just a statement of the facts).

Not many would argue that car failures have cost Hamilton 75 points in lost wins and that's not taking into account the haul of points lost with pit/team errors.

Also those points lost don't just disappear down a black hole, they have gone to Vettel and Alonso in part so that compounds the impact of those screw ups.

That said I can hear the JB fanboys already saying that it's points that matter so if JB finishes ahead of Hamilton then that must be because he's a better driver.

Whitmarsh needs to explain why Lewis who has driven impeccably and should be right in the mix and and on his way to his second WDC is on the verge of being beaten by a team mate who has been under-performing for nearly half the season (sorry JB but despite the BBC's attempts to cover it up its still true).

in my opinion kimi has been the driver of the year, in races he has showed no 1 can match him. lotus' pace and car was overrated for a long time. the developments werent working and slow pitstops massively effected kimi. the win is deserved he has been the best driver of the year considering he is at a new team and had 2 gt used 2 the drs and pirellis, a natural racer, he has carried the team because of grosjeans incompetance, also during most the races the lotus has had no straight line speed so either gets easily overtaken or gets stuck behind another car

Why is it that if we look at the articles for this last race there are two articles that both have titles with controversial quotes from Hamilton and both have comments enabled?

"Fernando Alonso better than Vettel - Lewis Hamilton"
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20192741

"Sebastian Vettel podium was lucky - Lewis Hamilton"
https://bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20199430

There were a multitude of quotes this weekend from other drivers that were worthy of discussion but no article with comments?

The BBC's campaign to assassinate Hamiltons character clearly is having an effect if you look at the comments.

What is however very encouraging is the large number of posters I'm now seeing who are noticing exactly what Benson is doing and are not swallowing it anymore and are calling him out on his double standards and tabloid level sensationalist gutter journalism targeted at Hamilton.

I applaud them!!!!

@68

Totally agree... Fernando is flattered by the fact he is the exclusive focus of 100% of Ferrari's efforts. All the other leading drivers have to share their teams resources with a competitive team mate. The Ferrari is nowhere near as bad as many would like to suggest. They are not 2nd in the WCC by magic and if they'd supported Massa from the beginning they might even be challenging RBR. Lotus is the 4th best car at best over the whole season and in Grosjean, Kimi had a very quick teammate. For him to be in clear third place in the WDC, ahead of both McLaren drivers and one Red Bull driver is an amazing achievement after 2 years out of the sport and shows his class. I don't think many would deny that McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull are superior cars & teams with vastly greater resources than Lotus.

@69

I know what you mean but I don't think it's so much a conspiracy against Lewis so much as Benson knowing how to drive up the comment count for his blogs and articles.

@69 Finally we agree on something and this absurd focus on every fart from Lewis Hamilton being spun into a frontpage main story by Andrew Benson has got to stop.

I encourage everyone to make a complaint against Benson on the official BBBC complaints page, with a link on the bottom of this or the main page. BBC should not become a tabloid.

Hats off to Kimi. Great drive and well deserved. I've waited all season for it!

Could all of the Lucky Vettel comments have something to do with when Vettel was 8th and his teammate was ahead of him, Weber made contact with not one but two of the cars in front of Vettel? And when Vettel was 4th and too far back to make any further impact, Weber runs over Grosjean and the safety car comes out. I'm not saying anything, but I'm just sayin'.

@69 and 72

Benson gets away with it because there is not a united voice pointing out the bias. Hamilton fans only care when he's unfair to Hamilton, Schumacher fans only care when he's unfair to Schumacher and similar for Kimi and others. Alonso fans love him because he never has anything critical at all to say about him and regularly devotes entire articles to singing his praises. The pattern of Benson's bias is clear to those who've read his blog for a while. He +loves+ Alonso, and has a conspicuous dislike for Hamilton, Schumacher and Raikkonen that he find difficult to hide. I think the 2 articles you mention from the last couple of days are as much about saying "Alonso deserves to be WDC more than Vettel" (something Benson obviously believes) than anything else. I'm not sure why Lewis seems to be using the media to put that message out though. He and Alonso seem to trade complimentary comments to the media at every race these days.

I think the British media and fans have ruined Hamilton as a personality. Alonso is the best, undoubtedly, vettel was lucky today but its funny how no one mentions how Lewis took the high road and shook those guys hands..
Also about LH and JB, so what if JB was better in Melbourne, if your a keen f1 fan you'll know that it happens to almost all drivers.. It even happened to alonso in Korea! So that's no indicator that JB is better, Infact I think he's so overrated. British media treat him like he won last years title

My take on the season is that there are 5 drivers in a class of their own (Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Button Raikkonen - in no particular order). They are consistently fast and equally important, consistently clean. The rest are a mixed bag of average, good and reckless.As for Abu Dhabi, Kimi drove extremely well as he has done all season. Vettel definitely rode his luck but I agree with the view that whichever way you look at it, his chase through the pack twice was quite phenomenal. Alonso continues to impress me with how he is able to deliver results with second-best cars. In that respect I think he is in a class of his own on the grid (Vettel has yet to show his colours in a bad car). Button and Hamilton have not delivered to their true potential for a mixed bag of reasons, all related to the quality and reliability of the McLaren. In terms of Hamilton moving to Mercedes, am not surprised but I do think it is a move with major risks. If Mercedes nail it he could reap huge rewards; if they don't he'll look like Jacques Villeneuve when he left Williamns and languished at BAR.

Two things are for sure. The season has been fascinating (8 different winners), and the crop of top drivers means F1 is in good health. The thing that I do wonder about is the unsafe driving by some of the drivers. Contrast how Button didn't bash into Vettel when Vettel made a move on the outside with how other drivers banged wheels in previous attempts.

@43 janner_

Wow! You sure have the hate on for Vettle. What has he ever done to you to be so vindictive?
The fact he took full advantage of circumstances presented to him as any competent person would do seems to be totally lost on you. Would it have been more to your satisfaction had he cruised around at the back so that you could further put the guy down?
LH had the race in the bag. Expect for his mechanical problem that is, is truly unfortunate, but that's just the way things are in racing- unpredictable.

Brilliant win for the iceman. Much deserved. Classic radio messages too.

But I find some comments very strange here. When driver X does something good, that's just because he was lucky. But when driver Y does that, he is a relentless worrier who never gives up and he makes his own luck. May be X also has to say how he fought every lap and tweet some samurai quotes. May be then he will get some much deserved praise. May be still he won't.

Glad no one was hurt in the Rosberg & Karthikeyan crash.

*warrior @ 78

If it had comes out the mouth of Charles Pic or Sena the outcome gonna be different, none of you guys gonna like it and they gonna show them the door. Great drive Kimi... Mc.Laren,what a disgrace! To keep on waisting Hamilton talent Wait till Perez to waist your team work next year, I can see they mix with Marusia and Caterham next season with Witmarsh lead.

Real petrolheads know. Kimi is the man.

that is 3 almost certain victories that Hamilton has been relieved of.disapointting but i said after he signed for merc that he wouldn't win another race and mechanical issues would be the norm,half jokingly it must be said.he was .5 of a second a lap faster than kimi and was nearly 4 seconds after 5-6 laps after the restart.he would of cruised to a 10+ second win minimum.

im delighted for kimi is someone was to cash in on Hamiltons misfortune i was glad it was kimi,he deserves to a be a winner this season where drivers like rosberg and Maldonado have won.

i seriously cannot believe how lucky vettel was,everything except maybe the 1st SC,but that helped him close the gap and overtake the slower cars and the sister team.and he struggled to overtake button for 5-6 laps,with tyres 8+ laps fresher,the option tyre,11km/ph top speed advantage,2 drs zones per lap,and he caught him sleeping in the braking zone at the end.but i do give him massive credit though for actually doing it in the first place,yes he got lucky but imo he earned some of it.

congrats to pastor,di resta and others.alonso must be crying himself to sleep,he was safe to assume he might of even be taking the championship lead with vettel in the pits.but ultimately it is ferrari who are at fault and alonso has had most of the luck this season,with hamiltons issues,rb issues,lotus issues.

wow abu dhabi actually made a f1 race to take place there look great,great for casual fans to see the excitement.mclaren really need to look at its employees and made some radical changes if they are to beat teams like rb,ferrari and lotus,because without hamilton they would of been the 4th fastest team in abu dhabi and this season.hamilton is 100% correct in leaving imo

austin,texas the track seems like it has taken on 3 tracks and put their best features in a new one,silverstone,india and turkey.it seems like rb domination there

Sad isnt it. A blog on how good Raikonnen's win was has been hijacked by the usual "fanboys" of various drivers, "Closet racists", and others. Lets face it Boristhe greek, Straightalker, davis, Piggyback are all just there to wind up people to get their kicks. Baggiosponytail is at least consistent in that he winds up everyone on as many blogs as possible and does'nt just go for F1. I was going to class _janner in this group as well but after re-reading his first comment I'm sadly forced to think that he believes what he has written and his second contained very good factual points. Oh well.
As for the comment on Karthekiyan & HRT, yes he brings a lot of money into the team but it's not really his fault if his steering packs up and he hits the brakes. What would you do?

Was great to see Kimi win at last. He was sorely missed when he tried to do the Rally driver thing.

Well done to Kimi.

With regards to Maclaren, surely time Martin Whitmarsh went. He is obviously not leading and motivating the team to their full potential.

Maclaren the not the same team since Ron Dennis stepped down.
They need someone stronger at the helm.
Bring back big Ron!

"Raikkonen owed his win to Lewis Hamilton's wretched fortune at McLaren."?
Please, give the guy credit he deserves. He won because he finished ahead of the pack - Hamilton included.

What a great race, and one that summed up the season really. Great drives from Raikkonen, Alonso and Vettel, 3 world champions remember, all excellent drivers. More misfortune for Hamilton, with the combination of failures, poor pit stops and Grosjean/Maldonado, this year he has had more than his fair share (by my reckoning about 60 points worth - this should still be a three horse race). A bit poor from Webber and Button, clearly the two drivers who have underperformed the most this season.

A blog is where an individual or group of users record opinions, information etc. Do people really find it necessary to attack Andrew Benson personally over what is really his opinion and an invitation to debate a topic. This really seems lost on a lot of visitors to his blog. It's no wonder he never responds anymore when there are trolls constantly berating him!

Well done to Raikkonen. Not really a Vettel fan but he drove a quality race today. Would love to see Alonso take the championship come Brazil.

Raikkonen drove very well, it's not his short comming that Maclaren could not get the car to the finnish line, it is theirs!

Well done Kimi, brilliant race and a great comeback year.

Kimi just needs to up his qualifying pace to be in the top four consistently if he is to win races. Obviously that's easier said than done since the Red Bulls, McLarens and the Ferraris are faster.

Lotus can be confident for next year. I think they will be faster than McLaren (due to the loss of Hamilton) and may be competitive against the Ferraris. Can't see them being quicker that the Red Bulls though.

Great drives from Raikonnen & Alonso. Vettel so lucky.... Cant see him not winning this championship with the way lady luck smiles on him.

Just the opposite for Hamilton. He should be fighting for the title based on speed/talent... but not much you can do when the car breaks down. Bet he wishes the season was over!

A fascinating race yesterday but I predicted (in at least part of the race) what would happen. Vettel, I suggested, would benefit from some cataclysmic misfortune in front of him to allow him to get top 5.

I take nothing away from Vettel as he drove a very good race but the double safety car and the amount of drivers in front that went out has allowed an opportunity for Alonso to get back in the championship slip away. I think that is that now as far as the WDC is concerned which is a shame but I hold hope thatthis somehow goes to the last race - Austin is an unknown so there is room yet for an oddball race and set of results to come up.

I thought Kimi was very composed yesterday and drove a solid race. His radio talks were clearly a highlight for many with that character of Kimi that we love so much shining through. He never fails to amuse me.

As for Hamilton, well what is left to say? Unlucky again and I can see why he wants to move. Even if it is to a team with a car that isn't as fast/good he may well just want a car and a team that doesn't let him down so regularly - at least then he will know if he gives it his all he will get the results he deserves - be it 1st or 10th.

Here's hoping for a good final two races and am already looking forwards to what may come next season with the driver changes.

Well done Kimi, great drive. Great drive from Vettel and Alonso, was hoping Vettel would finish lower in the order though in order to make it closer in the championship.
As the article says, tough luck on Hamilton, reliability is generally so much improved these days.

Cannot see why the same people who moan about 'Hamilton bashing' are bashing Mclaren? The faulty part was a fuel pump on the Mercedes engine....the manufacturer Hamilton is going to next year!
All I will say is don't expect too much from Mercedes next year, they have problems and the team needs a restructure before they have a chance at becoming competitive.

'I encourage everyone to make a complaint against Benson on the official BBBC complaints page, with a link on the bottom of this or the main page. BBC should not become a tabloid.'

Whatever...

@83 John of Burgundy

Thanks for the name check - although you seem to have criticised almost everyone on this blog in your post...

I'm not sure which of my comments on this blog is designed to "wind up everyone". I've basically just given my views on the race, not sure which point is controversial but i'd be interested to know.

@95

He didn't name check me...I almost feel a little left out! You should just be grateful haha

great drive from kimi and of course seb still hope alonso gets title

A big reason for Kimi outperforming Romain so convincingly in this race was because of his car having better updates due to him still (before this race anyway) being in the championship battle. Personally I don't have a problem with it, they should have done it earlier but I can understand Lotus not trusting Kimi initially although he has shown that he has lost nothing from his time away from Formula 1.

Actually I think teams would benefit from having a clear number 1 driver so that he can have the benefit of the updates and if it works well it could then go on to the number 2 drivers car. Ferrari usually have an edge due to this policy. I think McLaren are naive for not having a clear number 1 driver.

@95, know what you mean, you could write "great race" and it would probably wind up someone on here.

There are too many posts whinging about Benson or Hamilton V Button on a blog supposed about the Abu Dhabi GP and Kimi's superb win though...

My post @43 was to highlight how I felt Seb was lucky to take big points with his mistakes, the safety car timings and other drivers mistakes. Seb has had many other races better than this so I don't subscribe to Horner and his fanboys views that the Abu Dhabi race was one of his best or that it shows he is a great racer.

@ 12 I´m going to answer to you. Let´s compare and contrast. This year Hamilton faced the same penalty in Barcelona. McLaren didn´t start from the pit lane. They didn´t change all the set up of the car. In Barcelona we didn´t have many cars out of the race because of accidents nor we had 2 SC. Hamilton finished the race in P8. Can we say he finished in P8 only because he was lucky? NO!!!

Now Alonso in Valencia. He started on P11. Then around lap 26 Vergne and Kovalainen accident. SC on the track. BUT BEFORE THE ACCIDENT AND SC ALONSO WAS ALREADY IN P4. HE OVERTOOK SEVERAL CARS ALL BY HIMSELF OUTPERFORMING HIS CAR.

I hope you can see the difference to what Vettel did yesterday